PREP NOTES: Hungry Tigers roar to sixth straight soccer victory

The Tigers defeated East Peoria 4-1 Saturday, breaking open the game in the second half after the teams were scoreless at halftime.

"We have confidence and we're playing some very good soccer," said Illini Bluffs coach Gerard Smith.

Smith said his team had at least 80 percent of the possession in the first half against East Peoria, but couldn't convert on 15 chances including five golden opportunities.

"I told our players at halftime not to panic. The goals would come," Smith said.

Illini Bluffs (6-3-2) was ahead 2-0 by the 64th minute on goals by Cam Scott (unassisted) and Jake Larson (assisted by Reid Sondgeroth).

East Peoria's Ryan Combs scored (assisted by Cooper Walden) with five minutes left on the Raiders' only corner kick of the game, but Illini Bluffs responded with two goals by Blake Webb (assisted by Drew Davis and Sondgeroth).

Wilmette Loyola Academy (306) won the invitational team championship, followed by Winnetka New Trier (306) and Barrington (310) in the top three. Loyola won a tie-breaker.

Ahead of the game: The 200 freestyle relay team for the Pekin co-op swimming and diving team is already ahead of last year’s group in the same race.

The team of Jaidlyn Sellers, Sami Curtis, Lauren Spanos and Kelen McDaniels swam a winning time of 1:46.99 in a meet against Moline last week.

Last season, the Dragons had a best time of 1:47.46 in the 200 free relay.

“The relay team is moving in the right direction. My hope is they continue to excel,” first-year Pekin coach Erin Cealey said. “They're encouraging each other practice, which is helping their performance during meets.”

Goal-oriented: Morton junior midfielder Evan Pfeifer scored a goal and dished out two assists Monday to lead the Potters past Peoria Christian 5-3 in a non-conference boys soccer game.

Pfeifer scored in the 33rd minute and assisted in the 43rd and 67th minutes for Morton (5-5-2).

Long day: The Mid-Illini Conference dual match last week between the Dunlap and Metamora girls tennis teams couldn’t have been much closer.The match lasted five hours, and came down to the No. 2 doubles match between Dunlap’s duo of freshman Taylor Disharoon and senior Deepti Sudhakar against Metamora’s Madison Brinkman and Alison Lee.

The Eagles won the final match in a super tiebreaker 5-7, 6-4 (10-7) to stay undefeated in the Mid-Illini. It was the fifth super tiebreaker in the match.

“The match was tied 3-3 after singles, and again at 4-4 after the first two doubles matches,” Metamora coach Brad Boeker said.

Dunlap does splits: The Bloomington Central Catholic girls tennis team won the eight-team Dunlap Invitational on Saturday, ahead of runner-up Danville and third-place Metamora.

The host Eagles split into two teams, finishing fourth and tied for fifth.Dunlap played without Taylor Disharoon. The standout freshman has been playing No. 1 singles and is undefeated in dual matches against Mid-Illini Conference opponents.

“Unfortunately, Taylor was sick and a last-minute pull from the draw,” Eagles coach Patrick Gornik said. “I split my team to fill the draw and give my girls a chance to see more/different competition.

“Obviously it hurt our team score overall, but I wasn’t terribly worried about that going into the event. It was positive for my girls to gain seeding information for the conference tournament and sectionals.”

Metamora’s Alison Lee was second in No. 2 singles. The Redbirds also had third-place finishes from Madison Brinkman in No. 1 singles; Carly Tucker and Mara Boast in No. 1 doubles; and Grace Cushing and Lauryn Kelly in No. 2 doubles.

Normal effort: Metamora co-op girls swimming standout Noelle Peplowski won the 200 IM (2:05.56) and 100 breaststroke (1:03.83) to lead her team to a third-place finish Saturday in the Normal Community Invitational.

Peoria Journal Star contributed to this report. Steve Stein can be reached at stevestein21@yahoo. Follow him on Twitter @SpartanSteve.

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